Old ammo, how old is to old?

DonVathome

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I have thousands of rounds of ammo that is around 15 years old.

Handloaded .44 mag, .45 long colt and new in box .22 rounds.

How long is the factor .22 rounds good for? The .44 mag & .45 long colt are hand loads how long are they good for?

Are they worth anything? How can I get rid of them? I literally have around 100 pounds of ammo I got about 20 years ago from a friend whose father passed away. I am never going to use 95% of this ammo so I need to figure out what to do with it.
 
I don't know about rifle and handgun cartridges but with shotgun shells, I have had no issues with reloads that I loaded in the 90s and factory loads from the 60s, 70s and 80s.
 
Manufacturers say 15 years.
You'll always hear people say it depends on how you store it, but how many people actually store it in a dehumidified vault? Of course, someone will come on here and say "I do".
There's a reason the military sells off it's old ammo. People buy it and if it goes bang they'll proclaim it as "good". Most of the time they're not getting the same velocity's as new, In my military mind that's a failure.
Of course, any ammo is better than no ammo.
 
Old ammo can suffer accuracy issues, especially rifle ammo because of cold weld, but it's probably fine for plinking. With the ammo shortage, throw it out there on the Trade or Barter post. I'm sure someone would be interested in the brass, if nothing else.
 
I have some 41 pistol ammo that is from the 60's or older that I took to the range and shot. The old powder is smoky and smells of sulfur strong which I love. Reminds me of hunting with my Dad and Uncle. It shot fine but did foul the barrel a bit. cleaned it when I got home and everything was good to go.
 
15 years is practically new. I still have surplus '06 ammo from the 50's and it goes bang every time. I still have shotgun ammo and other stuff I started saving back in 1983 when I was twelve.

I have primers from the '70's and an assortment of ammo that is pre 1980's. It all works just as it was designed to do.

One of the biggest issues with old ammo is that the brass cases can harden with age and split at the neck/shoulder when fired.
If you want to keep your brass from splitting just anneal the loaded rounds before shooting. Just kidding, DO NOT DO THAT!o_O
 
I have some 41 pistol ammo that is from the 60's or older that I took to the range and shot. The old powder is smoky and smells of sulfur strong which I love. Reminds me of hunting with my Dad and Uncle. It shot fine but did foul the barrel a bit. cleaned it when I got home and everything was good to go.
Sounds like it was loaded with 2400.
 
Bought my uncles 1960’s 30.06 pump action and he gave me a bunch of ammo from the same era!

went to range and started plinking away with the old ammo...gun started smoking from the chamber!

I ejected the spent shell and learned that brass doesn’t last forever!

When fired, it blowed a hole right through side of casing! The rest of the ammo was thrown away after that experience!
 

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